


Samara's Graduation

by ReleasingmyInsanity



Series: Samara Fics [2]
Category: Sesame Street (TV)
Genre: Bechdel Test Pass, Canon Character of Color, Deaf Character, Family Fluff, Food mention, Gen, Happy, Large Families, No Plot/Plotless, POV Character of Color, POV Female Character, SO MUCH FLUFF, Sign Language, deaf character of color, pairings are minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-21
Updated: 2018-11-21
Packaged: 2019-08-27 07:01:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16697650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReleasingmyInsanity/pseuds/ReleasingmyInsanity
Summary: Bob's niece Samara graduates high school and enjoys getting to spend time with her family.





	Samara's Graduation

Most of the students at Samara Johnson’s high school graduation had a few relatives attending. Their parents, their grandparents, their siblings, maybe an aunt or an uncle or two. Samara had a lot. Her parents were just two of the people who had come to celebrate her graduation. Her mom’s side of the family was represented by her grandparents, four aunts and uncles, and several cousins. On her dad’s side there were fifteen people. Her grandparents were there of course, and so were her two uncles, her Uncle Bob’s partners, her cousins, and her Great Uncle Wally.

Uncle Wally never had been much for adding “great” onto his name. “ _Makes me feel sort of old. Unless by ‘great’ you mean that I am a terrific uncle,_ ” he would tease as he gave her a wink. He was always making her laugh, full of jokes and tall tales. She was looking forward to spending more time with him.

She hadn’t been surprised when Uncle Minneapolis had been able to make it to her graduation, he was good at attending important family events, even if he never visited for longer than 48 hours. She _was_ surprised that he had apparently managed to stay put for the entire ceremony with only minimal fidgeting. Uncle Minneapolis was one of those people who always had to be on the move, a useful habit for a treasure hunter.

Uncle Bob was there of course. Samara had never considered for a moment that he wouldn’t be. He was by far the uncle she was closest to, seeing him on a regular basis. He was very good with kids and she had always looked forward to visiting him as a child. It was thanks to him that the family had learned American Sign Language so quickly when she was born deaf. Him and Aunt Linda.

Aunt Linda had been dating Uncle Bob for over 20 years before Samara was born. And although she loved all of her uncle’s partners, Samara felt especially close to Aunt Linda. It wasn’t just because they were both Deaf, but that was certainly an important part of it. Aunt Linda understood her better than anyone else in the family did. Both from knowing what it was like to be Deaf and from sharing a lot of the same interests.

Samara’s parents had tried for years to convince her to stop referring to her as “Aunt Linda.” Reminding her that technically, “uncle’s girlfriend” is not the same as “aunt.” But they stopped trying to change her mind when Aunt Linda had made it very clear that rather than being annoyed by the title of aunt she was thrilled.

“ _Just because Bob and I aren’t married doesn’t mean we’re not committed to each other. Samara is my niece and I am her aunt._ ” Samara’s parents hadn’t tried to argue against the title since.

Aunt Linda wasn’t Uncle Bob’s only partner by any means, though she was the only one that Samara felt the need to refer to as aunt or uncle. Besides Aunt Linda, Uncle Bob had six other partners, all of whom he often brought to family gatherings in various assortments.

Susan and Gordon had been Uncle Bob’s partners for the longest amount of time and they were the sweetest couple Samara knew. Then there were the partners that Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda shared. Olivia had hardly set down her camera since Samara joined her family after the ceremony. “ _I’ll make you a photo album_ ” she promised.

Maria, Luis, and David were Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda and Olivia’s other three partners. Samara had been very surprised when she learned that pretty much no one else knew a legally married group of three, it seemed perfectly normal to her.

Uncle Bob had also brought his kids. While Samara knew that he thought of Barkley as his son as well, the giant dog wasn’t allowed at the graduation ceremony. But his other three “kids” were there. There was Big Bird, the six-year-old giant yellow bird that her uncle and the rest of Sesame Street had adopted a long time ago. He was a darling friend and Samara adored him.

Uncle Bob’s other kids weren’t exactly kids anymore. Both were in their late 20s. But she was still very fond of them both. Gabi was the daughter of Maria, who Uncle Bob had mentioned that he saw more as a sister than as a significant other, but he, as well as his and Maria’s shared partners, were also Gabi’s parents.

Miles was Susan and Gordon’s son, and officially he wasn’t one of Uncle Bob’s kids at all, but so what if technically Uncle Bob wasn’t his father? He and Miles adored each other just like they _were_ father and son. And anyway, Miles had always filled a cousin role to her.

Miles and Gabi each gave her a hug. “ _Congratulations, Little Cousin._ ” Miles signed.

Gabi elbowed her half-brother. “ _Everyone looks little to you, Miles._ ”

“ _Everyone IS little,_ ” Miles replied. “ _Except for Big Bird. But especially you._ ”

Samara laughed as Miles picked up Gabi and put her over his shoulder.

Gabi smacked her brother on the back, clearly trying not to laugh. “ _Miles! You put me down!_ ”

“ _No can do, Little Sister._ ” Miles did his best to sign one-handed so that Samara could understand him.

“ _Listen,_ ” Susan told her son, “ _As long as you’re carrying Gabi around, why don’t you two go get the cars? You can just carry her right over there._ ”

“ _Okay, Mom_.”

“ _Susan!_ ” Gabi complained. “ _Tell this big doofus to put me down._ ”

Susan just laughed as Miles set Gabi down and the two headed off towards the parking lot, along with one of Samara’s cousins from her Mom’s side.

“ _Which week are you coming to stay with us on Sesame Street again?_ ” Gordon asked, resting his hand on Susan’s shoulder.

“ _The week after next_ ,” Samara told him, “ _I have some details to finish up first and a lot of packing to do after that_.”

“ _You must be excited about your trip_ ,” Luis remarked.

“ _I am!_ ” Samara signed excitedly. _“Uncle Wally, I can’t believe you’re taking me to Europe for a graduation present!_ ”

Uncle Wally just smiled, “ _You said you wanted to travel. What’s the point of being a traveling salesman if you can’t take one of your favorite nieces on a trip?_ ”

“ _Uncle Minneapolis was disappointed that we weren’t going to join him,_ ” She laughed. “ _I’m more excited about seeing things I know are there than about trying to track down things that might not be._ _Besides,”_ she gestured to where her youngest uncle was running around with some kids, “ _I’m not sure I can keep up with Uncle Minneapolis. He’s fast._ ”

Everyone standing next to her had to laugh. Even Aunt Linda and Gordon, who were both distance runners, couldn’t hold their own in a race against Uncle Minneapolis.

“ _You get back from Europe at the end of July right?_ ” David asked, casually leaning against Luis’ side.

Samara nodded, “ _Right, and then I have a few weeks to get used to our timezone again before school starts.”_

“ _I’m so happy you’re going to be attending Gallaudet!_ ” Aunt Linda signed. “ _I learned so much there!_ ”

“ _I am too!_ ” Samara signed back just as enthusiastically.

“ _You’re going to Linda’s college!?_ ” Big Bird asked excitedly. “ _She told me that’s the special school where everyone’s Deaf right?_ ”

Samara grinned and hugged her cousin. “ _It is!_ ”

“ _Do you know what you want to study yet?_ ” Susan asked.

“ _Not yet._ ” Samara told her. “ _But I know I want to do something that’s either language or research based. Maybe both._ ”

“ _Language and research based huh?_ ” Olivia teased, nudging Aunt Linda. “ _Thinking about becoming a librarian are you?_ ”

“ _However did you guess?_ ” Samara teased right back. “ _I’m not sure yet what I want to be, but it’s certainly crossed my mind._ ”

“ _Well of course_ ,” Uncle Bob signed, smiling affectionately at Aunt Linda, “ _Samara takes after her aunt._ ”

“ _Don’t worry too much about what you want to do after you graduate_ ,” Maria told her. _“I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I started college either. It took me several years to figure out what I was meant to do. Just study something you enjoy and figure out the rest later._ ”

“ _Thank you_ ,” Samara signed.

“ _You’re welcome_ ,” Maria signed back.

They continued to talk for a while, and Samara waved to some of her friends as they headed out with their own families. Finally, her cousins arrived with the cars so that they could all go out for dinner.

“ _Before we head out,_ ” Samara signed. “ _Can we take a family picture?_ ”

“ _Of course_ ,” Everyone responded immediately.

Samara handed her phone to a classmate who hadn’t left yet, to take the picture. Then it took a few minutes to get so many people organized for the photograph. Big Bird had to stand in the back like always, 8-foot-2 birds are hard to see around. The humans took a little longer to sort out.

Samara stood in the middle of the front row with her parents on either side of her. Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda stood to their right, Uncle Minneapolis stopped running around long enough to join the picture and stand next to his brothers, Uncle Wally stood beside him. Her grandparents stood on their left next to Samara’s mom.

Her mother’s sisters stood behind the grandparents with their husbands and children. Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda’s partners moved into place behind them, all leaning comfortably on each other and putting their arms around each other’s shoulders. Miles and Gabi joined their parents, pretending that they were going to give each other bunny ears for the photo.

“ _Everyone ready?_ ” Samara’s classmate asked.

Everyone must have agreed because they raised the phone and maneuvered it until everyone was in the frame. “ _On the count of three,_ ” they signed. “ _One, two, three_.”

Samara grinned as her classmate took several pictures and handed the phone back to her. “ _Thank you_.”

“ _You’re welcome._ ”

Samara’s grin only grew as she looked at the photos and then up at the people standing in front of her. This was her family, her enormous, wacky, wonderful, loving family, and she couldn’t have any been happier than she was for having them all in her life.

**Author's Note:**

> Sesame Street has been brought to you today by the letters G and F and by the number 15.
> 
> It amuses me so much to think about how big Samara’s family is if you include all of her Uncle Bob’s partners.
> 
> Arytra and I agreed that Miles’ height as an adult should be based off of his final actor’s height (probably about 5’11”/6’0), but I can’t quite get over the idea of him being as tall as his original actor, Miles Orman, who is now 6’5”. Gabi appears to be about 5’3” so Miles can pick her up easily.
> 
> As Big Bird mentions, Gallaudet is a university specifically intended for Deaf and Hard of Hearing students. Linda Bove went there and it seemed reasonable to assume that so did Linda the character.
> 
> Honestly, I’m headcanoning that Samara goes into linguistics specializing in signed languages and how they change and evolve. Maybe she gets a professorship at some point. Linda is so proud.
> 
> Okay, according to the Gallaudet website, it’s not possible to major in linguistics but it is an available minor, and she totally takes it. She could also go back for her masters or even a PhD in linguistics. Maybe she majors in International Studies with the Spanish focus and minors in linguistics.
> 
> One of Samara’s classmates at some point totally asks her how she’s so good at research. She’s just like “My aunt is a librarian. She’s taught me a lot.”
> 
> I’m just over here casually giving Samara a Deaf non-binary classmate.


End file.
